I read an editorial in your newspaper recently about a "feud" between two Chinese "Ivy League" members.

The prestigious Tsinghua University and Peking University engaged in a mutual public recrimination after the gaokao, the national college entrance examinations, as both schools aimed to enroll top students.

It is true that the jarring scuffle and the unsavory recruiting strategies behind it should not be admired, but calling on the authorities to regulate the "vicious competition" can only remove the tip of the iceberg.

That is because even as top- or high-scorers, students still have no idea whether - after being bombarded by lobbyists from Tsinghua, Peking University and others - they will make a choice which they won't regret after four years of college study. This lack of initiative and confidence is also common among their peers who can go to college but do not belong to the "triple-A group." They constitute the majority of Chinese high school graduates.

Like other top universities across the world, Tsinghua University and Peking University have legitimate reasons to vie for students who can achieve the best academic scores. But it doesn't absolutely mean that these zhuangyuan, or top-scoring students in a particular region, will remain the best after four years of education in these top universities.

One obstacle that hinders their competitiveness after graduation is their lack of interest in the major they chose before enrollment. This phenomenon is also commonplace among ordinary students at ordinary universities.

In Chinese universities, it is extremely hard for undergraduates to change their majors. The requirements, although different in different schools, are often too strict to be met and only a small number of students can manage to study subjects in which they are interested.

If we divide these new undergraduates into two groups: the high-scoring students and the average-scoring students, they are basically all unable to make confident decisions as to which school they should go.

High-scoring students are blinded by the recruiting teams of top universities which make tempting promises such as large scholarships, while the average-scoring students are blind because there are few professional counseling services to help guide them through their options and help them choose universities that suit them.

Therefore, it is essential that Chinese high schools assume more responsibilities in providing pre-college counseling services to their fresh graduates. Insightful advice is helpful to young people who are going to make this decision at the first turning point of their lives.

If they do not do this, there will be many students dawdling or wasting their time at colleges because what they learn does not interest them at all.

Like Albert Einstein once said, "interest is the best teacher."

Liu Xianfa, a freelance writer based in Beijing